Lawsuit: Connecticut still owes about $235,000 to education reform consultants

Three education consulting firms sued the state this week claiming the Department of Education failed to pay them in full for their work helping the Malloy administration with its reform efforts in 2012.

Leeds Global Partners, the New York firm that helped reorganize the Education Department "and create policies and procedures that promote student achievement in Connecticut" says it has only been paid half of the $200,000 it was promised by the state, according to the complaint.

Leeds Global Partners is a division of Leeds Equity Partners. According to Leeds Global's website, it "is an education services and advisory firm."

Jonathan Gyurko, one of Leeds Global's co-founders, worked as director of charter schools in the New York City Department of Education and was intimately involved in negotiations between the Malloy administration and the two teacher unions last year. The company's relationship with the state was controversial. In 2012, the Connecticut Post reported that the company received its contract without going through the bidding process. A whistleblower complaint was filed last April questioning its contract with the state.

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It's unclear if the lawsuit filed this week is referencing the same no-bid contract that went through the State Education Resource Center, which claims to be a nonprofit set up to support local and regional school boards. State auditors released a report in February in which they said SERC is a state entity operating in a gray area without "state agency requirements for transparency and accountability."

The State Education Resource Center was not named as a defendant in any of the three lawsuits.